A Mile in Her Hooves
by Resotii Watasaki
Summary: After being called a hard flank, Twilight Sparkle takes a drastic measure to aide in making her more optimistic but it goes wrong leading to a amusing situation.


**A Mile in Her Hooves  
By Resotii Watasaki**

Disclaimer: I don't own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

**Author's Note: Been awhile since my last fanfic and I'm happy to say that this is my first story for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It was bound to happen considering how much of a fan of the show I am now. This is actually inspired by a fan art I've made. **

It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. Applejack was doing her usual routine of bucking apples from trees, Fluttershy was in the woods singing happy songs with her woodland friends, Rarity was on an important errand searching for very important jewels, and Spike was tagging along to help her out.

But Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, however, were in Twilight's library. Twilight Sparkle was busy studying but it was getting hard to concentrate with all the laughing going on between Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. They both had joke books and were exchanging different jokes back and forth and laughing every now and then.

"Can you two _please_ quiet down!?" Twilight Sparkle finally exclaimed. "I'm trying to concentrate! This is a library after all!"

"Oh, Twilight, you don't have to get so worked up." Pinkie said in a caring voice. "We're not trying to bother you… these jokes are just so funny!"

"But you _are_ bothering me, you guys are distracting me!" Twilight was still pretty annoyed.

Rainbow Dash groaned loudly, "Fine, if it will make you happy, we'll leave…" Shutting her book, she turned to Pinkie Pie and said, "C'mon, Pinkie, let's go to Sugar Cube Corner, I'm _sure _we won't get on anypony's nerves there."

Pinkie Pie closed her book as well, and the two of them started to leave.

Twilight Sparkled breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

Before leaving the treehouse, Rainbow Dash stopped to say, "Really, Twilight, why do you have to be such a hard flank?" And with that statement she closed the door behind her and left.

"H-Hard flank?" Twilight Sparkle questioned softly, slightly offended.

In the next few days, Twilight Sparkle was seriously bugged by what Rainbow Dash had said about her being a "hard flank". In fact, so much so, that she couldn't sleep and was pacing back and forth pondering why Rainbow Dash thought she was a hard flank.

"Ugh, Twilight," Spike whined, walking down the steps, awoken from her hooves taping on the ground. "You promised you wouldn't do any more late night pacing…!" He continued when he was near her, wiping sleep from his eyes.

"I can't help it, Spike." Twilight explained, as she continued to pace back and forth. "I can't sleep at all."

"What're you worried about this time?" Spike sighed, rolling his eyes.

"I'm not worried about anything, Spike." Twilight Sparkle told the small purple dragon. "It's just…"

Twilight Sparkle hesitated. It was a little embarrassing to repeat what Rainbow Dash had said to her to Spike, even though he was her best friend and number one assistant.

"What?" Spike urged with his eyes full of concern.

Twilight Sparkle signed half-heartedly and decided to fess up. "I'll tell you… but you have to promise not to laugh."

"You have my word!" Spike exclaimed, giving a little salute.

"Rainbow Dash thinks I'm a hard flank." Twilight said, shutting her eyes in despair.

Spike's face squished up into an amused expression but as promised he did not laugh.

"Why… Why'd she call you that?" Spike questioned trying his best to maintain his composure.

"I'm honestly not sure…" Twilight admitted. "But I think it had something to do with me telling them to quiet down because I was trying to concentrate."

"I'm not agreeing with Rainbow Dash or anything but maybe she has a point." Spike explained. "I mean, you need to live a little! Have fun!"

There was a brief moment of silence between them which consisted of Twilight Sparkle staring at Spike with a look of concentration. Spike had to look away because it was starting to get a bit awkward.

After what seemed like forever, Twilight finally gasped loudly and shouted. "Pinkie Pie…!"

This outburst caused Spike to jump nearly three feet high, falling backwards into a book shelf, knocking down a bunch of books. Picking up a book that had landed on his face and placing it with the others, he questioned. "What about her?"

"You know how care-free and optimistic she is, right?" Twilight Sparkle explained excitedly.

"…Yeah?" Spike still wasn't following.

"Well, I bet if I were more like her I definitely wouldn't be considered a hard flank! There's gotta be a spell that would allow me to-" She stopped, noticing Spike. "Spike! Look what you did! My books are all over the ground!"

All Spike said in response was, "I'm going back to bed." And with that, he leaped out of the pile of books he was in and dragged his feet back up the stairs. 

The next day, Pinkie Pie was at Twilight's treehouse with a look of confusion on her face. Spike had told her to come over but was very vague about the reason because he wasn't sure of the reason himself. All Twilight had said was that she urgently needed Pinkie Pie to come over and asked Spike to get her. The rest of Twilight's friends had come along as well, curious about what was going on.

"Why do you need my help again?" Pinkie Pie questioned, cocking her head to the side.

"Thanks for coming, Pinkie. I just needed to extract some of your care-free personality and transfer it to me." Twilight explained.

"Okie dokey lokey!" Pinkie Pie beamed, still oblivious to the whole situation.

"Um, Twilight…" Rainbow Dash was concerned. "Are you sure about this? I mean if this is about what I said yesterday…"

Spike was also very doubtful about this idea. "Yeah, Twilight, couldn't you ju-"

But Twilight cut him off. "Here goes nothing!" She exclaimed, and with that her horn began to glow.

Soon both Twilight and Pinkie Pie where encased within Twilight's magic. Spike covered his eyes, not sure what to think. Everypony else just stared in awe.

"Oooh, pretty!" Pinkie Pie said with admiration.

A muffled explosion caused Twilight and Pinkie Pie to be sprung backwards, both of them knocking into bookcases behind them. Twilight's magic disappeared, showing that the spell was complete.

"D-did it work?" Spike asked, peeking between one of his claws.

Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie were motionless for a second but they quickly shook it off and got to their feet. Pinkie Pie's eyes widened in shock and then she slapped a hoof to her face.

"I can't believe this!" She shouted in a grimace. But it wasn't Pinkie's voice but Twilight's!

"Wait, what?" was Spike's response as he stared at Pinkie Pie in bewilderment.

"What jus' happened?" Applejack asked, looking back and forth between Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle.

"Look at their cutie marks!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, pointing at them with her hoof.

Indeed, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle's cutie marks were switched.

"Oooh, cool!" Twilight, or should I say Pinkie said. "I have magic now!" And with that she blasted a magenta beam toward the other ponies and Spike. Luckily they ducked out of the way in the nick of time.

"Pinkie!" Twilight shouted in dismay. "Don't use my magic! You could hurt somepony!"

"Sorry, Twilight!" Pinkie replied with a sheepish smile.

This exchange was pretty humorous to watch. Let's just say that from everypony else's perspective it looked more like Pinkie Pie was the one scolding Twilight Sparkle.

"This is weird…" Spike said slowly, scratching his head, a puzzled expression on his face.

"The spell must have gone wrong! All I wanted to do was make myself more optimistic like Pinkie Pie but for some reason I ended up in Pinkie Pie's body instead!" Twilight cried, though it was a little hard to understand what she had said because she said it incredibly quickly.

"This is disastrous!" Rarity exclaimed, standing on her hind legs and putting her front hooves to her face in horror.

"W-W-What are we going to do!?" Fluttershy stuttered in a worried tone.

"I'm _really_ sorry, Twilight." Rainbow Dash said with a sigh, flying over to her. "This wouldn't have happened if I never called you a hard flank, I didn't realize I had hurt your feelings."

"It's okay, Rainbow…" Twilight replied with a reassuring smile. "We'll… We'll figure this out."

"This is disastrous!" Rarity said again, this time more dramatically.

This caused everypony to panic, talking all at once. It was hard to understand it all.

But Spike was trying to talk above everypony. "Uh, guys, I…"

After a third attempt he took a deep breath and shouted as loud as he could, "I have something to say!"

The library was silent at once which somewhat surprised Spike.

"What is it, Spike?" Twilight questioned, exasperated from all the commotion.

"I just wanted to say…" Spike began, scratching his head nervously. "Maaaybe none of this would have happened if you just asked Pinkie Pie for help in being more optimistic instead…?" He said this last bit rather quickly because he was afraid to hurt Twilight Sparkle's feelings.

"Ooh, that does sound like a lot of fun!" Pinkie Pie added, happily.

Twilight sighed half-heartedly, realizing that would have been the smarter thing to do. "You're right, Spike. I just…wasn't thinking at all."

"Don't worry about It, Twilight." Spike assured her, coming over to her and putting his claw on her shoulder. "I'm sure that zebra… whatever her name is… could help. Couldn't she?"

"You mean Zecora?" Twilight asked.

"It's worth a shot." Applejack exclaimed. "Let's go y'all!"

And with that they all headed out. Twilight instinctively scooped Spike up onto her back but Spike was a little amused by this because technically it was Pinkie Pie who had done so.

Spike took this opportunity to crack a joke. "So… where to, Pinkie Pie…?"

"Not funny." Twilight grumbled, glaring at him. 

The ponies and Spike were at Zecora's hut in no time. Twilight Sparkle had just finished explaining what had happened to Zecora.

"Ah," Zecora began. "This is quite a situation. Luckily for you, I have the solution." And with that statement she held up a small bottle with a bluish purple liquid inside it.

"What's that stuff?" Rainbow Dash asked what everypony was thinking.

"It is a potion for fixing an incorrect spell, I am certain it will treat you both well." Zecora explained, glancing between Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie.

"How does it work?" Twilight questioned, earnestly, swiping the potion out of Zecora's hoof.

Everypony started staring at her with gaping expressions, and this made Twilight realize the impoliteness in what she had just done.

Blushing, she gave the potion back to Zecora and uttered sheepishly. "Sorry…"

Zecora gave her a genuine nod and proceeded to explain how to use the potion. "You must both drink a swallow all the same or your problem will remain."

Everypony looked confused. It wasn't always easy to understand what she was saying with the way she always rhymed.

But Twilight seemed to have a knack for rhyming speech because she knew exactly what Zecora meant, and said, "So what you're saying is that me and Pinkie have to drink a gulp's worth of the potion at the exact same time or it won't do anything?" 

Zecora nodded again, beaming happily. She then went into a cabinet and took out two small mugs, pouring a small amount of the potion into each of them.

She gave the mugs to Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie and said, "I present to you the potion, now please drink in a swift motion."

Pinkie Pie gave Twilight Sparkle a skeptical look, waiting for her to translate what Zecora had said into a more understandable sentence.

Twilight sighed with a smile and told her, "She wants us to drink to potion as quickly as we can."

"Okay!" Pinkie Pie said cheerfully, and made a motion to start drinking.

"Pinkie, wait!" Twilight halted, and Pinkie paused from what she was about to do. "We have to drink at the same time, remember?"

"Oh yeah." Pinkie replied with a giggle.

"Rainbow Dash count us down." Twilight said to the rainbow-maned mare.

"You got it!" She grinned and started counting. "3…2…1!"

As soon as Rainbow Dash said one, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie chugged down the potion. Moments later then both sputtered, shaking their head with disgust. Most likely from the taste of the potion.

"That tasted awful!" Twilight said, waving a hoof around her mouth.

"You can say that again!" Pinkie Pie agreed, sticking out her tongue with disdain.

Everypony gasped with surprise but then they quickly exploded into cheering.

Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie glanced at one another and smiled happily.

"It worked!" They said in unison, leaping into a hug.

"What a relief…" Spike sighed.

Twilight Sparkle turned to the little dragon with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Spike. I should've just took your suggestion. We would never gotten in to this mess if I had."

"I think that would make a great letter to the princess!" Spike said encouragingly taking out a quill and parchment out of no where.

Twilight laughed. "I guess you're right, Spike."

"Is it okay if I add something?" Rainbow Dash asked, scratching her head with embarrassment.

"What is it Rainbow?" Twilight questioned.

"I wanted to add that I learned that I should keep my friend's feelings in mind before saying something. If I don't I risk hurt their feelings." Rainbow Dash said confidently.

"That's a great lesson." Twilight complimented her, beaming.

Spike scribbled down everything that was learned from this day and quickly sent it with his fire breath. He then said. "It is done."

Suddenly Twilight Sparkle came over to Spike and gave him a friendly hug. Spike smiled in return.

The End

**And that concludes my first story for MLP:FiM. I hope you enjoyed it and please don't be mean in the reviews.**


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